Food Porn: Peanut Stir-Fry

For this week's edition of Food Porn, we brought back an old favorite. The recipe for tonight's peanut stir-fry first originated way back when Ms. Art was still an omnivore (she tells me it once included chicken), but has since become a staple of our dinner repertoire. In fact, we find it's a pretty consistent crowd pleaser, a meal we're happy to introduce to family and friends on the regular. Tonight's rendition, though lacking broccoli, was still excellent. In an effort to make this post more useful for you, dear reader, I asked the lady to type up a recipe. Ms. Art, take it away...

Ingredients:
One package of tofu, drained, wrapped in a tea towel, and pressed, then cut into one-inch cubes. I like silken because even though it's kind of fall-aparty, it cooks up crispy on the outside and custardy on the inside. Mmm. I'm told meat-eating types like the texture of extra-firm.

Whatever veggies you like, probably about six cups of them, chopped. This time, we used bok choy, a few radishes and their greens, and some spring onions, because that's what appeared in our CSA share this week. Some sort of onion is crucial. Broccoli is awesome because it soaks up the sauce in an exceptionally delicious way.

Three cloves of garlic, minced

Chunk of ginger root, minced. 2-3 tablespoons' worth.

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Sauce:
1/4 cup natural peanut butter - we like Trader Joe's Organic Creamy, salted, because it's positively amazing.

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon Sriracha sauce

Water

Preparation:
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick frying pan - really, use non-stick, you'll be glad you did. Add your tofu in a single layer, and season with salt & pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, then turn, until all sides are browned.

Meanwhile, heat another tablespoon or so of olive oil in a wok or similar vessel. Add your veggies according to how long they take to cook - tonight, we did bok choy stems, radishes, white parts of the onions, garlic, and ginger to start, then added the greens once those began to soften.

Stir together sauce ingredients and add water to make a nice saucy consistency. Once your veggies are done, add the tofu, green bits of the onions, and sauce to the pan and stir together. Serve over brown basmati rice.

Monochromatic Housewarming/Dance Party

I was going for a Bill Hick/Johnny Cash tribute sort of thing.

I'm proud to say he made this his new Facebook photo.

This guy didn't arrive in a monochromatic outfit. He was promptly forced into the banana suit, but took it pretty well.

There was much monochromatic dancing.

We called this one "Oreo."

This guy organized the whole monochromatic thing.

Food Porn: Kale and Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

Tonight, Ms. Art and I coined a new term. "Squail" is what happens when you force kale and spaghetti squash into unholy-yet-utterly-appetizing culinary union. We put the two together this evening (along with onions, garlic, whole wheat lasagna noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, marinara sauce, etc.) in the form of a hefty lasagna, and were more than satisfied with the results. There wasn't much of a recipe to speak of, but if you're interested, I'd be more than happy to detail the process for you. If not, please enjoy the photos.

More Food Photos

Food Porn: Root Vegetable Gratin

Most every Sunday evening, Ms. Art and I make dinner together. It's one of the small ways we attempt to bring some sanity to a pair of very busy lives. This, then, was the latest of said dinners. The dish is called root vegetable gratin. It was the first time we'd ever had it, and we both found it pretty delicious. (The pictures get even more delicious-looking/huge if you click on them.) We served it with arugula salad mizuna and butter lettuce salad. (Brain fart! We put arugula in the gratin.)

Recipe (we deviated from this quite a bit, but it's a great starting point)

More food photos (with much fewer words)

Hey, ma, ain't that the guy from the teevee?!?

Today, I ventured out into the wilds Walnut Grove, Ga. with Ms. Art, the lovely Rachel W. and graphic-art whiz Alvin. Our destination was the charming Whippoorwill Hollow Farm, home to, amongst other things, giant motherfucking okra and a yearly Slow Food Atlanta/Georgia Organics benefit called Field of Greens. This year, over 50 vendors, restaurants and chefs participated, which means we were eating and taking pictures all afternoon. It was wonderful. One of the chefs in attendance, that fella pictured above, was Kevin Gillespie, he of Woodfire Grill/Top Chef fame. He won the Three-Not-So-Little-Pigs cooking contest. He totally earned it too. Yum.

Hot, Uncensored Beard-on-Beard Action!

One is fake and one is real. If you click on the photo, they get even bigger.

"D.H.S. REMIX (ft. T-Pain and Lil Wayne)"

[Click to enlarge.]

Much better, no?

"Decatur High School (ft. T-Pain and Lil Wayne)"

[Click to enlarge.]